July 08, 2014

American CEO Parker: We currently don't need a new headquarters

Following American Airlines' ground breaking on its new integrated operations center, chief executive Doug Parker took questions from the media.

He was asked about the possibility of building a new headquarters or renovating the buildings that currently house American's executives offices on Amon Carter Boulevard. Here's what he had to say.

Q: With today’s ground breaking on the IOC, what about a new headquarters?

Parker: We’re currently don’t need a new headquarters.

Q: Are your current headquarters sufficient for the merged airline?

Parker: We have enough facilities to house management and run the airline.

Q: Is it obsolete and need to be updated?

Parker: It needs some work yeah.

Q: Will you look at renovating it or updating it or possibly building a new one?

Parker: I moved into that building so I know about how old it is. It was 1990 I think so it is 25 years old. It’s getting near the end of its useful life. We could do an additional renovation so we’re looking at that, but it’s not really high on the agenda, we have a lot of projects we’re looking at and that’s one of them but we have higher priorities like running the airline.

Q: As you move US Airways and American employees together do you need more facilities to accommodate the larger workforce?

Parker: Obviously we’re adding 150,000 square feet because we need more facilities. But that’s good. We’re consolidating two airlines, and two management teams and two operation centers and the result is we need to have more and more facilities than we have currently.

Q: Do you need additional construction beyond the IOC in the near future?

Parker: I would expect so. I don’t know exactly what it is. There certainly is…As I said, we have sufficient facilities now but they’re not all exactly where we would like them all so over time I would expect to see more projects similar to this.

Q: Are you planning on moving more employees from US Airways’ Phoenix headquarters to DFW?

Parker: I don’t know exactly the number of people who still need to come from Phoenix. By in large most of the people have made that transition, maybe not permanently maybe their commuting but their job is here and most are. There are no change in plans on what we’re going to bring from Phoenix to Dallas and a number of folks are still in Phoenix.